KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: International football is trying to pull its act together to shame Saudi Arabia authorities into cracking down on the controversial beoutQ pirate channel which is ‘stealing’ TV coverage of major championships.

The beoutQ operation is centred in Saudi Arabia and is obviously a strand of the economic and political blockade of neighbouring Qatar undertaken by a Saudi-lwed coalition including Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Its target is the beIN Sport channel which was created as a subsidiary of the Qatari-owned Aljazeera broadcaster which bought TV  football rights across the Middle East and North Africa.

However this has meant beoutQ pirating coverage of some of the major international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, AFC Asian Cup, English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga and German Bundesliga.

TV rights pirating, if allowed to go unchecked, would undermine the financial system of not only football but all international sport.

Co-ordination

Hence world federation FIFA, European and Asian governing bodies UEFA and the AFC as well as the English, Spanish and German leagues have joined together to issue a joint statement of condemnation of beoutQ.

Legal action has been launched and a formal complaint registered with the World Trade Organisation. However legal steps in Saudi Arabia could take many months or even years so the more likely effect may be achieved by public shaming of beoutQ directly and the Saudi authorities indirectly.

Already several aggressive Saudi attempts to muscle in on international football’s political power game have been rebuffed.

A statement from the six bodies set out their anger though not, notably, any hint as to how they propose to step up opposition in practical terms.

The statement said:

Collectively, we, as rights-holders in various football competitions, condemn the pirate entity beoutQ, which continues to abuse the operations of rights holders and legitimate broadcasters through its persistent and illegal screening of events for which it has made no effort to secure the rights; the latest example of which is the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.

The activities of beoutQ are a clear and flagrant breach of our intellectual property rights. beoutQ’s piracy harms not only us, as rights holders, but also our legitimate licensees and, ultimately, the fans of our competitions. Money raised from the sale of TV rights helps us to support the participants, as well as to develop and grow the sports of which we are guardians from the grassroots up. Piracy kills that investment.

We will work closely with partners and relevant authorities to enforce and uphold our intellectual property rights and put an end to this widespread piracy issue for everyone’s benefit.

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